Sleepless in Paris
I couldn't sleep last night. Not unusual in itself. I am what has been described as a periodic insomniac. Most of the time I sleep ok, but then every now and again I'll have a few nights where I either can't sleep at all, or I can't fall asleep until the wee small hours of the morning. (I really like that song by the way...) It's hereditary I think ,because my dad is the same way. I stayed with him and his wife for about six months close to ten years ago, and occasionally when I couldn't sleep I would meet my dad in the kitchen, or we'd cross paths on our way to the bathroom.
This has been a lifelong issue, and I've tried every method known to man to fall asleep. I've counted sheep, which is just a waste of time. When I was around five my mother tried to give me some sleep medication my pediatrician had prescribed. The end result was that I conked out, slept for five hours and then woke up alert and ready to play. I've tried the warm milk with honey, which frankly is no help at all, and tastes pretty much vile. I've tried eliminating the caffeine in the evening, but I don't drink coffee very often to begin with and only limited amounts of other caffeinated drinks, so that didn't work. I tried working out late-ish in the evening and that just made me more energized.
Anyway, I've learned to accept my temporary inability to sleep, and some nights I even enjoy it. Occasionally I'll go for little walks around my neighbourhood, sometimes I'll read, sometimes I take advantage of the time difference and talk with my sister or friends in the US. And then there are times when I'll just watch a movie or some late-night TV. Which is what I ended up doing last night. I watched bad American reality television (reality tv tends to be bad everywhere)
It was the one where the mom's change families for ten days, I have no idea what it's actually called. Anyway one of the women was a vegan from California who was sent to spend some time with a family in Louisiana who had a sort of alligator farm, but also killed alligators and poisonous snakes etc. The woman was a nightmare... she nagged the poor kid endlessly, she was close-minded, tried to convert everybody to her way of thinking, told her kids not to cry when they read out the recommendations on how to spend the money, then proceeded to cry herself. And her family and friends were not much better, they treated the woman from Louisiana with barely veiled contempt, and were completely uninterested in any point of view other than their own. The whole thing reminded me of another episode I saw of this show where a born-again christian traded places with a jewish woman. Fanatics are just nutty, and the whole thing just confirmed my dislike for fanatism. And that's the end of a huge digression.
Hopefully tonight I'll be back to sleeping normally, and if I can't I've stocked up on some DVDs to keep me company.
(Dec 2, 2005)
This has been a lifelong issue, and I've tried every method known to man to fall asleep. I've counted sheep, which is just a waste of time. When I was around five my mother tried to give me some sleep medication my pediatrician had prescribed. The end result was that I conked out, slept for five hours and then woke up alert and ready to play. I've tried the warm milk with honey, which frankly is no help at all, and tastes pretty much vile. I've tried eliminating the caffeine in the evening, but I don't drink coffee very often to begin with and only limited amounts of other caffeinated drinks, so that didn't work. I tried working out late-ish in the evening and that just made me more energized.
Anyway, I've learned to accept my temporary inability to sleep, and some nights I even enjoy it. Occasionally I'll go for little walks around my neighbourhood, sometimes I'll read, sometimes I take advantage of the time difference and talk with my sister or friends in the US. And then there are times when I'll just watch a movie or some late-night TV. Which is what I ended up doing last night. I watched bad American reality television (reality tv tends to be bad everywhere)
It was the one where the mom's change families for ten days, I have no idea what it's actually called. Anyway one of the women was a vegan from California who was sent to spend some time with a family in Louisiana who had a sort of alligator farm, but also killed alligators and poisonous snakes etc. The woman was a nightmare... she nagged the poor kid endlessly, she was close-minded, tried to convert everybody to her way of thinking, told her kids not to cry when they read out the recommendations on how to spend the money, then proceeded to cry herself. And her family and friends were not much better, they treated the woman from Louisiana with barely veiled contempt, and were completely uninterested in any point of view other than their own. The whole thing reminded me of another episode I saw of this show where a born-again christian traded places with a jewish woman. Fanatics are just nutty, and the whole thing just confirmed my dislike for fanatism. And that's the end of a huge digression.
Hopefully tonight I'll be back to sleeping normally, and if I can't I've stocked up on some DVDs to keep me company.
(Dec 2, 2005)
posted by Annette at 7:34 PM
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